


Whispers

by Serpensortia_parapluie



Category: Naruto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 21:43:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11837628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serpensortia_parapluie/pseuds/Serpensortia_parapluie
Summary: Young Kakashi meets Orochimaru.





	Whispers

**Author's Note:**

> Set when Kakashi is about 6, a couple of months after Sakumo died, before whenever it was that Orochimaru started experimenting on people like a creep. Which was probably due to Danzo's influence, which I'm ngl, is my headcanon. I can elaborate on that if asked because the Naruto timeline is spaghetti, so I have Opinions. This was supposed to be a longer, fluffy piece, with lots of parental!Orochimaru, inspired by blackkat's Orochimaru/Sakumo stuff, but that clearly didn't happen. Let me know what you think in a comment!  
> I do not own, nor am I affiliated with the owners of _Naruto_ , and also do not approve of my work being shared on sites like Goodreads.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard the rumors, as young as he was.

He had.

That was why he sought him out.

He’d heard the whispers about Orochimaru.

Who hadn’t? They were hard to miss, as loud as they were.

_Strange. Prodigy. Odd. Talented. Different. Skilled beyond belief. No empathy. Pitiless._

__

__

_Cruel._

_Dangerous._

They whispered about him, too.

_Strange. Prodigy. Odd. Talented. Different. Skilled. Emotionally stunted. Traitor’s son._

__

__

_Dangerous._

Even despite all the bad things said about Orochimaru not so subtly behind his back, he was still here in Konoha, a strong and loyal jonin. That was more than you could say about his teammates, whose praises were practically sung in the streets.

So Kakashi heard the words thrown around about the Snake Sannin.

And he listened, and he watched.

What he heard was that Orochimaru was extremely intelligent, in a way that left others biting his dust.

This scared many of the villagers and shinobi, few of which were even near his level. The rest were jealous.

He was one of the three sannin, so it was a given that he was only a step or two below the Hokage in terms of strength and battle prowess.

He had grown up in war, and fought in another, so he was experienced. 

Clearly skilled, given he was still alive.

Kakashi listened, and learned as much as he could without actually meeting the man in person.

He learned that people are scared of those that are smarter, stronger and deadlier than they. Even shinobi. Especially shinobi sometimes. Which, he supposed, was reasonable if you weren’t able to overcome that fear. Without the fear of losing, fear of death, why would you train to become stronger in the first place? The important thing was to train to overcome that fear.

He learned a lot from the man, given they’d never met. But he still didn’t understand.

Why would the people of Konoha talk about Orochimaru the way that they did?

Everyone was proud of Tsunade-sama. She revolutionized modern medicine, and saved hundreds of lives.

She’d also fled Konoha in the night a few years back and hadn’t been seen or heard from since, except for some disquieting rumors.

That did not seem like someone to be proud of, to Kakashi.

Even the civilians, down to the children who played at being ninja in their games, knew of the brave and gallant Jiraiya-sama.

He’d abandoned Konoha in the middle of a war.

Just vanished without a trace, abandoning his comrades and his village when they needed him.

Hardly the epitome of bravery.

And still, everyone held those two-thirds of the Legendary Sannin in high esteem.

Why?

They’d left.

They’d abandoned their duties.

They weren’t here to protect Konoha or her citizens.

Orochimaru was.

He’d never left.

He had been right at his teammates’ sides until they left.

Tales told from parent to child talked about how ‘Gallant Jiraiya’ had saved fifty men in a battle during the Second War.

The fact that he wouldn’t have even known about that fight in time to make it there without Orochimaru was mentioned, sometimes, but mostly skimmed over as was the fact that he’d stayed there fighting just as long as Jiraiya.

Tsunade-sama revolutionized modern medicine!

Oh, and Orochimaru developed antibiotics, antivenoms, as well as antidotes to many poisons previously considered untreatable, but that was usually only mentioned as a side-note.

Why? Kakashi wondered.

He was the only one who was loyal enough to Konoha to stay, and he was just as brilliant as Tsunade-sama, just as strong as Jiraiya-sama, if not more so.

So why did no-one honor him for his loyalty and achievements?

If a new disease spread tomorrow, who would be here to help stop the spread and create a cure?

Not Tsunade-sama.

If war broke out tomorrow, who would be here to defend the village?

Not Jiraiya the Gallant.

Orochimaru would.

Orochimaru had been. He’d never broken his oath to serve and protect the village.

So why would the citizens disparage him so?

Kakashi didn’t understand. He knew he needed answers though, because he’d heard the things whispered about him and he could see that he was on his way towards being talked about the way Orochimaru was, and distrusted just as he was.

He had to ask.

It did not take him long to find the Snake Sannin- all he had to do was follow the whispers, and there he was, reading a scroll beneath a tree, expression serene. The civilians didn’t notice, but in his lap, held beneath the scroll, a small snake summons curled up. Kakashi would not have noticed save for the whiff of snake he got when the breeze changed directions abruptly.

Kakashi lingered for a bit, waiting for the civilians to move along as he stayed in the shadows.

As soon as they did, he approached, under no illusions that Orochimaru had not been aware of his presence the entire time.

He stopped just a few inches short of stepping on the trailing edge of Orochimaru’s robe, and waited.

He did not have to wait long.

“What do you want, child?”

Kakashi examined the purple clan markings around the man’s eyes and remained silent.

“I am not fond of repeating myself.”

Still, Orochimaru did not look up from his scroll.

Kakashi waited.

Finally, gold eyes flicked up to meet his, and Kakashi gave him a formal bow in greeting, one clan-head of one to another clan-head of one, eyes never leaving his. “Hatake Kakashi.”

Orochimaru closed his scroll, and continued meeting his eyes with a faint air of bemusement. “Hatake Sakumo’s son?”

“Yes.”

Neither blinked.

Gently, Orochimaru cupped his hands around the blueish-black snake coiled in his lap and lifted it up to rest on his shoulder instead.

“And what does Hatake Sakumo’s son want with me?”

“I don’t understand.” Kakashi said bluntly.

Orochimaru hummed lightly, one hand stroking the snake idly. His golden eyes were still locked, unblinking, on Kakashi’s.

“That makes two of us.”

A few civilians passed by, chattering loudly until they saw who sat beneath the tree.

In the sudden hush, it was easy to hear one hiss to another, “There’s a kid with him! Shouldn’t we try and get the kid away from him?! He’s not safe!”

Kakashi blinked, but did not miss that while Orochimaru’s eyes were cold, the corners of his lips lifted ever so slightly.

Kakashi was not afraid, and Orochimaru knew it. He was as amused as Kakashi was bemused by their ignorance.

Another civilian whispered back, quietly enough for an untrained civilian, but loud enough for a trained shinobi to hear easily, “There’s nothing we can do!” before ushering away the entire group.

Kakashi waited for them to pass completely before speaking again.

“That,” he said, gesturing towards the group that had just left. “I don’t understand.”

“Hmm?” Orochimaru tilted his head, his hair a ribbon of ink spilling onto the same shoulder that held the snake, making it hiss irritably and poke its head out of the curtain of hair that had engulfed it. “Ah,” he said to the snake, “my apologies, dear one.”

“Why do they act as though you are something to be afraid of?”

“They fear me because I am not like them.”

“You are a loyal shinobi of Konoha.” Kakashi argued, feeling empty. Repeating words he’d said to his father, to no avail. “Are you not?”

It was more of a rhetorical question than anything, but Orochimaru’s eyes remained impassive. “I am.”

“Then why are they frightened!”

The man was quiet for a long pause, but if he was taken aback by Kakashi’s outburst, he did not show it. When he finally did speak, it was slowly, considering. Each word slipped out like he rolled it around his mouth, tasting its nuances before saying it.

“Why do you ask, Hatake Kakashi-san?”

Kakashi did not fist his hands, although he wanted to.

“I listen. I am a Hatake; we are allied with the wolf and dog summons. I am a trained shinobi, I am a chunin. I hear, better than they would like what they say about me.”

Long, slim, and pale fingertips trailed along the snake’s back, smoothing its soft scales, moving almost hypnotically. They were covered in callouses and small scars from years upon years of training with bladed weapons.

They were gentle as they left the snake to trail along Kakashi’s covered cheek for just a moment.

“And what do they say about you, shinobi-san?”

Kakashi’s breath hitched.

A civilian would not have noticed it, but he was not speaking with a civilian. Long black lashes fanned over golden eyes briefly; just long enough to show him that it had not been unnoticed before locking into his gaze once more.

“They say I am dangerous. I am aloof, I am cold, I am hard to know, except I am the son of a traitor, so why would you want to anyway. I am a risk, I am too different.” The words were torn from him, from somewhere deep inside that was echoing and empty.

“Ah,” Orochimaru breathed, a gentle understanding. “And what else have you heard?”

“I have heard what they say about you.”

“Oh?”

“They say you are dangerous. You are strange, you are frightening, you are cold, distant, aloof.”

Kakashi rubbed his forefinger against his thumb, just once. He darted out his tongue to wet his lips behind the mask, and resisted the urge to swallow nervously. It was as much fidgeting as he would allow himself.

He leaned forward while he spoke, as close as he could be without tumbling into the man’s lap. He flung each word toward the snake Sannin like a curse, or a cry for benediction. “You are the only student of the Hokage not to flee the Village and your responsibilities. You have saved more lives than Tsunade-sama or Jiraiya-sama. You are strong, and you use that strength to protect us. You are loyal, you have done nothing wrong-”

Orochimaru said nothing, and Kakashi could not read his face.

He allowed himself a single step closer.

“Why are they scared?”

Kakashi scented salt in the air, and could not tell why.

“I don’t understand.”

“Oh, child.” Orochimaru sighed heavily, taking care not to dislodge the snake with his heaving shoulders.

He smoothed a strong, firm, and gentle hand over the top of Kakashi’s head. He pulled himself to his knees, setting the scroll aside on the ground.

He gathered Kakashi to his chest, “Hush, child, shhhh.” he murmured into Kakashi’s hair, and held him as he sobbed.

**Author's Note:**

> I discovered I have Feelings about the Sannin while writing this. Also, it turned kinda into Kakashi trying to figure out what to do now after his father's suicide in the end and Orochimaru comforting him, so IDK. Also, if you think about it, Kakashi had to have heard all the rumors and stuff about Sakumo and then to hear them about Orochimaru and himself- wow, what a time to make that connection, right before posting? Too late now, I'm posting. Enjoy that sad thought.


End file.
